


A Plague In Alivast

by jackspadeggs



Category: The Unexpectables (Podcast)
Genre: Horror, Plague
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:54:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23754190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackspadeggs/pseuds/jackspadeggs
Summary: Hassrad is being hunted through dark streets in Alivast by none other than the Unexpectables themselves. Can our scaly boi survive this horrible night and return to Meryl? Or will it all end?
Kudos: 1





	A Plague In Alivast

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Unexpectables](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/608719) by Nadine Arnott (Monty Glu, @MontyGlu). 



> Non-Cannonical, takes places sometime after they open the Sweet Dragon but before the boys board "the boat".

A Plague In Alivast

By ♠️Jack Spade♠️

  
  


The stone corner chills Hassrad’s back. There's a pounding in his skull. His chest squeezes his insides. Night has swallowed the city of Alivast and it threatens to swallow him. 

_Shit! Shit! Shiiiiiiit!_

Hassrad closes his eyes, breathes deep once more and leans to look around the corner. They’re all here; Panic the Tiefling Bard, Borky the Orc Barbarian, Task the Kobold Ranger, Greckles the Kenku Rogue and even Remy the Kenku Fighter. They stand over Helga, their ex-legendary Orc warrior bartender, her eyes wide open with Raunfalt’s long blade sheathed in her chest. Borky lifts with a grunt and Helga’s chest rises as if she were trying to stand but falls with a wet slap and the crimson puddle grows wider beneath her. Hassrad’s vision blurs. His eyes bounce from Borky to Helga, from Task to Remy. 

_What am I doing here!?_

HIs thumbnail vibrates against the glass vial in his hand and Meryl’s face appears. He hears her laugh from a long way away. 

“Fuck!”

Hassrad slides against the wall of The Sweet Dragon away from danger and deeper into darkness.

* * *

“Did you hear about that man who went insane in a lower district market?”

“You mean the one two weeksss ago?”

“No, the one today…”

“Alivassst is crazy as usssual.”

“I guess so. Its just, this is the second time someone turned violent this month.”

“Mayybee they went crazy because they couldn’t ssspell pineapple either….Careful, I’ll sssnatch that tongue right out, Meryl.”

* * *

“In hindssight, probably sshould have paid more attention” Hassrad says looking around from behind an empty stall. Mushrooms litter the ground next to smashed fruits and pulverized crystals. “Okay Willow, I made it to the Druid District. Now all I gotta do iss find a druid…. If there are any left. All I’ve ssseen so far are lotss of bodies...and pigeons.” 

“Hey”

“Fuck!”

Moonlight illuminates pale hands that wrap around Hassrad’s mouth and his next scream fades into a “coo!”. Hassrad, the pigeon, stands in the Druid District surrounded by a cooing flock as they wobble and flutter around overturned market stalls searching for food. Borky sprints into the market with Raunfalt drawn, slick with crimson. Shadows from the stalls and buildings around the square obscure his features except for red glowing eyes. Hassrad launches into the air, panicking some of the flock and they scatter. Beating his wings Hassrad scrapes his feathered belly on the top of a stall about five feet from the ground and flops before standing.

_Flying’s harder than it looks huh?_

_Is a pigeon sseriously talking to me right now? Alivast is so fucking weird._

_No, well ,technically yes, but really I’m just a druid. It’s Taylor._

“Come out, come out wherever you are.” Borky says as his feet slide to turn and look into the market’s corners. A shout in the distance away from the market rises up into the night and Borky’s smile deepens. A thin line of drool flows down his chin.

_Taylor! Thank fuck!_

* * *

Hassrad thinks about how he’s never cared for hairy things or hair in general as he looks down at a sleeping Meryl, his scaled hand running over her head. He’s glad she’s asleep even if he had to drug her. The screams and wails started when night overtook the city and more than anything he wanted her to be safe from horror. From what this plague would do-

“You know, because of you, I give snakes a chance.” Helga says, her voice bouncing off the wall in front of Willow’s laboratory door at The Sweet Dragon. Hassrad continues stroking Meryl’s hair, smoothing out places where the pixie cut was ruffled.

“Hey!”

Hassrad looks up to meet Helga’s gaze and doesn’t look away. “Don’t make me regret decision” she says. Hassrad feels a cold tingling burn from his chest, into his bones and through his eyes.

“I won’t.” 

At the smallest corners of Helga’s eyes Hassrad thinks he sees tiny ripples. “Good” she says, smacking his arm too hard. Splintering wood explodes down stairs. Hassrad and Helga hop to their feet, Helga drawing a double bladed ax. “Sounds like boys are home. I go take care of them. Snake man, stay here and wait for Willow to finish, then get out.” Hassrad’s fist shakes clutching a curvy dagger. He watches Helga’s tall, muscular form move down the hallway and then dip below the first step.

“Fuck!”

“Hassrad, is that you?”

“Yesss! Willow, itss me. Are you finished!?”

“Yes but there’s a complication” A glass vial rolls out from under Willow’s door and into Hassrad’s boot.

“What!?”

“I had to infect myself in order to get a workable tissue sample and study the progressive encroachment on each layer of skin. It was actually impress -”

“Snake brain, Willow! Bullet points please!”

Footsteps thunder up the steps towards Willows lab. “Where do you think you're going?!” Helga bellows. Wood cracks and Task screams out in pain and draconic curses.

“Take that vial. Find a druid to make it rain, mixing the vial with the spell. Got it?”

“Yes, okay, yes. Fuck! What about Meryl?”

“She’ll be...fine...hurry and..g-g-”

“Willow? Are you okay?”

Hassrad turns to see Panic at the top of the stairs in a shimmering ethereal cloak and raising a finger. Panic beckons and hissess “Appro- AAAaahh!” Helga, bloodied on her face, her arms, a gash on her side, hoists Panic above her head and tosses him over the stair railing. “Look out below”, Helga says as she jumps back down.

“Hassraaaad...my door lock seems to be broken. Help me out here, pretty please?”

“Nope! Bye Willow!”

“Hey! Come back here!You mother fu-!!”

* * *

  
  


“I know someones here. I just want to, heh, talk. Yeah that's right, talk.” Borky says leaning over to look behind a stall with two pigeons perched on it.

_Okay, a rain making spell mixed with a mysterious vial. Yeah, I can do that but there's a problem._

_Of courssse there is._

_I’m not a good druid so I need time to prepare. Lots of time._

Hassrad tries to roll his eyes but discovers pigeons can’t and then says ‘ _Sso we need to hide ssomewhere.’_

_What about the High District?_

_No, the council locked themssselvess away. Would rather hide behind their high wallsss._

* * *

“What was that?!”

“Solly, please...” Pilchard rests a hand on her shoulder, feeling the armor vibrate. Not a good sign. Screams force their way into the Illunay temple and the ground shakes. Dust falls from the ceiling in flowing patterns. Pilchard recognizes a sheep and then a skull, shakes his head and takes a breath. “Solly we need to know what you want to do. Now. We’re here to back you up, whatever you decide.”

Solly stares wide-eyed at the double doors, wringing a red cloth in her gauntleted hands. Wrapping it around one hand, then unwrapping it only to wrap the other. She gasps, the doors shake and then all the noise goes silent. Azra growls looking around in the dim light of the temple moving to stand with her back to Pilchard and Solly. 

“Something is very wrong,” Azra whispers. Quarion’s Drow form steps out from Solly’s shadow, keeping his back to the rest with dagger and rapier drawn. Jerry floats down from the ceiling, his feelers twitching above the group making quiet flumph-flumph-flumphs as he hovers.

  
  


The candelabras creak overhead countering Solly’s ragged breathing. 

_Creeek_ , breathe, _Creeek_ , breathe, _Creeek_ , breathe, _Creeeek._

And then silence. 

Jerry floats down closer and says, _Its okay Solly. I think we’re sa-_

Stained glass erupts into daggers, wooden doors splinter and the lights go out.

  
  


* * *

Hassrad and Taylor fly on pigeon wings over Alivast’s darkened streets of the Lower District and then over the gate to the second district. 

_Oh gods…_

Hassrad is silent as the pair ascend on warm pillars from fires ravaging the Second District. A sea of flame carries them over crumbling towers and screams rising with the ashes.

_Is this hell? Have we lost already? What are we doing!? We should run!_

_Taylor!... Be more ssselfish._

_What?_

_I’m out here to save jussst one person. A farm girl with hopesss and dreamsss too big for her circumssstance. Its my ssselfish wissh to watch her make those ridiculouss things happen. How about you, Taylor?_

_...I want revenge. For my brother._

_Good. Not much farther now. Probably going to be ssshot down any sssecond though._

A pair of pigeons sail over the barrier and into the High District. Hassrad flinches expecting a volley of arrows but not one is heading their way. They bank towards a greyish-blue temple, the dim light in it’s windows a beacon for them. Then Hassrad sees a dark shape up high on the Attic, blinks, and it disappears. Hassrad shakes his feathered head.

_What?_

_Nothing I thought I sssaw someone on the Attic in a black cloak and a creepy looking masssk. Sstress must be getting to me._

_Yeah. Must be. I’m freaking out a little over how normal things are here compared to...well, everywhere else, too._

_As long asss we can find Solliandrusss here we sshould be-_

“Ferrum Valethian!”

“Shatter!”

Taylor and Hassrad feel their molecules vibrate and a force like an ocean wave blasts their feathered bodies away from the temple. Their pigeon forms evaporate and they fall behind a pile of ruined crates. Hassrad gets to his knees and feels Taylor pulling on his cloak behind him and they move further into cover.

The Illunay temple’s faint outline stands behind a veil of dust. Remus Corbeau stands ready, shield up, sword drawn, out in the open before the temple. A dagger thuds into the raised shield and clangs on the ground. Remy glances down at the dagger and it disappears in an arcane puff. He tilts his head, then looks back to the temple. 

“Again! Ferrum Valethian!”

“Shatter!”

Another lightless explosion shakes the temple and the dust cloud is wiped away revealing a crumbling stone shell. Moonlight casts a shadow over the ruined entrance like a velvet curtain and Azra Sahar steps through it followed by Pilchard then Quarion with Solly and Jerry floating overhead. 

“Attack!” Remy cries thrusting his sword out and a mob rushes into the open. Drooling, shambling forms storm the group, red eyes wide open. Azra and Pilchard react creating an instant wall in front of Solly, bracing for impact. Solly watches the mob, recognizing their fine clothes mark them as nobles.She remembers a few of them were once kind during her captivity here in the temple. Solly clenches a fist close to her chest and then it drops to her side. Solly’s gaze meets the ground and her red cloth now covered in dust resting over some rubble.

“Azra, Pilchard. Do it.” 

The armored pair grit their teeth and take a lower stance, shields moving to their sides. Moonlight flashes and four noble skulls crack against the ground. More footfalls echo in the dark streets and more quick shambling bodies take the fallen’s place.

“Moeru Ningyō no Jutsu!”

Fire streaks towards the fresh mob igniting them. “Ha hee hee” Greckles emerges from a shadow in the street, talons pointing. “What's worse than mindless zombies? Mindless zombies on fire! Haa haaaa haaa!” Groaning, red eyed nobles grasp at Pilchard and Azra threatening to knock them down and tear them to pieces.

_I got this!_ Jerry says and uncorks a small vial. Water streams out at the flaming mob damping the flames. “Gods, so annoying! Like nails on a fucking chalkboard!”, Panic says walking around the corner opposite Greckles wearing a grimace and a spectral golden mantle. 

”Solly, would you kindly” Panic’s lips part exposing his elongated canines, ”Kill Jerry?”.

“No!”

Panic sighs as the gold mantle ripples, “ Yes”. Solly moves without strain like brushing a hair away from her face. Her sword arm moves with natural grace like breathing.

“No!” Solly screams. Her stomach turns and clenches as she hears Jerry’s tentacles collapse with a wet slap. Quarion is wide eyed. Azra and Pilchard are pushing back against the doused mindless bodies flailing against their shields. Thick yellow blood pools under Jerry as their body turns blue, gazing up at Solly.

_Solly...its okay. Don’t...cry. I know you did- didn’t mean to. I’m just going- going to sleep...and then I’ll be….._ Jerry turns red, then yellow and then, finally, pale white like the moon reflected on Solly’s bloody sword. Solly shudders, eyes wide, gasping. The armor is too tight! Its squeezing! She tugs at the metal collar of her breast plate.

“That was fun. Which of your friends is next, Solly?”

Solly goes still like a gargoyle perched over a grave.“Solly, we need to get out of here. We need to get somewhere, somewhere you’ll be-” Metal scrapes against cobblestone as Solly picks up her helmet and sword standing with her back to Panic. She looks down at Jerry’s body, her red cloth beside them. 

“Quarion” the cold metal helmet rings with Solly’s voice, “Panic is next” and she places a hand on Quarion’s shoulder. He looks into the hemet past the shadow cast by the moon and finds two yellow eyes shining in the dark. A familiar chilling sensation grips Quarion’s guts, snakes into his chest but he nods. His cloak billows in the windless air and they both disappear.

“Panic! Look out!” Greckles squawks pointing above Panic and he looks to see three blades raining down. Quarion turns his rapier and dagger around slamming the top of Panic’s head with their pommels cracking Panic’s horns and bloodying his face. The corners of Quarion’s mouth tighten and then fall slack as beside him Solly’s sword ignites and the air shimmers around it. Heat and light assault Quarion’s face and only one eye catches the sword slide behind Panic’s collarbone. Panic yelps and then chuckles,

“Good one, kiddo. Got me there but you forgot, I’m the-” Solly turns the blade and rips it through Panic’s chest. His blood sizzles. The smell of burning hair and skin fills the square. Panic falls to his knees and then face down, dead.

“Panic is down! Regroup!”

“What about the ghouls?”

“Leave them! We can always find more.”

Remy backs down a street keeping his shield pointed towards Solly and Quarion. Pilchard and Azra strike down the mob just in time to see Remy dart around a corner and Greckles disappear in a cloud of smoke. Azra Sahar and Pilchard run to Solly and Quarion.


End file.
